Woman Sentenced to 20 Years for Trying to Have Ex-Husband Sold Into Slavery, Killed

by Inside Edition5:06 PM EDT, June 6, 2017

Rachael Leahy, 35, pleaded no contest to criminal solicitation to commit murder for hiring a hit man to kill the father of her children.

A Florida woman plotted to have her ex-husband abducted and turned into a sex slave or even killed in a desperate attempt to regain custody of their three young children, authorities said.

Rachael Leahy, 35, was sentenced Monday to two decades in prison after pleading no contest to criminal solicitation to commit murder for hiring a hit man to kill the father of her children.

In August 2016, Leahy spoke with an undercover sheriff’s detective whom she believed was a hit man she could hire to get rid of her ex-husband, David Leahy.

She suggested ways to kill her children’s father, telling the detective to make his death look like an accident, WFLA reported.

“Like, I mean, if he was to drown, or was to, I love fire, just like a fire thing where he’s caught in a fire,” Rachael Leahy said in a conversation with the detective that was captured on video and played during her sentencing hearing.

She also suggested enslaving the man, saying: “... it would be great if somebody could, a group of people all in black and hoods and stuff would just throw him in a van and take him overseas and make them their man gimp... for the rest of their life."

The undercover officer repeatedly gave Rachael Leahy the opportunity to back out, but she went on to offer to pay $5,000 for his services and was later arrested.

“I know it’s an absolute extreme," she said before her arrest. "I’m not this sort of person but listen, I’ve been through hell... There is no other resolution than for him to be gone completely."

The Leahys had joint custody of their children following their divorce, but David Leahy was given full custody after it was proven that the children endured abuse at the hands of their mother following the separation.

“She would tie them up with zip ties, lock them to their bed, lock them in closets. This was while I was away at work,” David Leahy said in court, according to WFLA. “I find out she’s locking them in the garage. She’s still tying them up.”

At her sentencing hearing, Rachael Leahy apologized for her actions and asked Judge Deno Economou for leniency.

“I don’t know what I was thinking at that time. I was not in my right mind, but I wouldn’t do it again,” Rachael Leahy said, as her defense team claimed she suffers from PTSD and mental illness.